Kepco Warned by Fair Trade Watchdog

The Fair Trade Commission said on July 1 that it gave a warning to the nation’s biggest energy supplier for its business practice of forcing landlords to guarantee payments from his or her tenants.

According to the fair trade watchdog, the nominal transfer form used by the Korea Electric Power Corporation, or Kepco, up until recently, makes the landlord liable for the power bill of his tenants for charges of 6kW or more for electricity.

The standard terms of current power supply agreements allow users to choose among cash deposits, payment guarantee bonds, and suretyship, and forcing customers to take one of those options is an abuse of its dominant position in the market, said the FTC.

ddr@donga.com